David K. Leff, Essayist, Poet, Lecturer

The Bank that Rocks: Unexpected Common Objects

Few errands are more routine than a trip to the bank.  In fact, it’s a downright dull chore and we like it that way.  Excitement or surprises when it comes to depositing or withdrawing money are usually not a good thing.  But if you are absolutely stone bored when you do your banking, you haven’t been to the bank that rocks.

The Collinsville Savings Society is a handsome, squat structure of granite, brownstone and brick in the heart of the old mill village of Collinsville, Connecticut.  With thick masonry walls, it’s a strongbox of architecture, a place where, unlike the transparent cubes of mostly glass that often pass for banks today, you have the feeling that your money is safe.  But the exterior display of earth’s bedrock is not the only place you’ll find stone at this bank.  Go to the far left teller window where you will find Lisa’s ever growing assemblage of rocks on the golden oak counter.  Collected by colleagues, customers, friends, and Lisa herself, the stones sparkle in late afternoon sunlight.

You Don't Need a Weathervane

A fiddler on the roof sounded a little crazy and precarious to Tevye, the milkman narrator of the famous Broadway musical, but how about a golfer, a cow, a sailing ship, a locomotive, or a fish.   Even more bizarre, no?  But look around your neighborhood, peer at the rooftops on your commute to work or when you run errands and you’ll find such things all around us, perched high on buildings where we rarely look.  You might associate weathervanes with barns and old timey buildings like the grasshopper atop Boston’s Faneuil Hall, but weathervanes are common on many recently built buildings from homes to shopping centers.  In an age that eschews architectural ornament and abounds with high tech means of obtaining wind direction, these decorative pointers have remarkable staying power.